3 Responses
Acts 17:16-34
(Open with Text)
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I like to keep up to date on the state of the church in America. I read quite a bit on the subject of American spirituality and how we as U.S. citizens view ourselves spiritually. But what I’m finding today is a bit disturbing.
Barry Kosmin and Seymour Lackman have written a book titled: One Nation Under God and it is a very comprehensive census of U.S. religions, and in that book they find that religious identity today is basically a thin mask worn by a majority in a secular society.
About 90% of Americans say that they are religious, but living out that religion is a different story. American Christians personalize religion with little regard for higher authority such as Scripture, or the church, and some of that might stem from the Reformation, but that fact is we like to say we are religious but we want no requirements placed upon us for morality, and no restraints placed upon us when it comes to personal pleasure. Our eyes may look up to heaven but our lives are closer to hell.
In another book titled: The Culture of Disbelief, Yale law professor Stephen Carter says that those who profess that their lives are ordered and inspired by faith are mocked at every turn. In other words Mr. Carter agrees with Paul’s words in 2nd Timothy 3:12, that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” So if you want to talk about Jesus Christ in public and your Christian convictions, you are labeled as irrational, right wing fundamentalists, and you are immediately considered wrong.
If Paul were to preach in America today, he might have thought back to Athens when he spoke with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. These two philosophic schools dominated the city’s thought. The Epicureans asserted that happiness and pleasure were the principle aims of a person if they wished to live a tranquil life. They believed that there were gods, but that they didn’t care about the affairs of human life and behavior and that there was no final judgment, so they felt that life was to lived free. They held the philosophy of eat, drink and be merry. In other words they were pure hedonists. The Stoics were the complete opposite. They believed that the gods were involved in human affairs and that whatever happened to you, you were to go through life completely free of emotional involvement. In other words they were completely apathetic.
So in our text we see Paul speaking to these men, in the same court that had tried and condemned Socrates to death centuries before. But the thing I love about Paul is that he never pulls any punches. He starts out with his observation that the Athenians seemed very religious, but that their religion was founded in ignorance.
Now let me just say this; to be ignorant doesn’t mean that a person is dull witted, it simply means that they do not know something. They don’t have all the information. I am ignorant about a lot of things. If you were to ask me to expound on the depths of Trigonometry I would have to confess my ignorance; and I don’t think that I’m a stupid person, but I am ignorant when it comes to mathematics beyond a certain point. And that is what Paul was doing on Mars Hill. He was stating that the Athenian philosophers, although learned men, were ignorant of certain things, and so he expounded on the truth of God, and he brought them to a point where a decision had to be made. And as we read in our text we see the response he got. And it’s important to notice those responses because they are the same responses that we get today as people consider the truth of God; people will either laugh it off, put it off, or accept it and believe.
Look at verse 32 (read); some of the men mocked Paul. They laughed off what he was saying. They made fun of him. Again I remind you that the Bible says that anyone who desires to live Godly in Christ will suffer persecution. Now today I hear people tell me all the time about how they are being persecuted for Christ’s sake. And I’ll ask, “Oh? What kind of persecution are you facing?” And I often get something like this, “Well the other day I was driving to work and I had a flat tire, and then when I finally got to work my computer crashed, and when I got home the kids were acting up and really stressing me out, but I’ll just keep on suffering for Jesus.” Let me tell you; that is not persecution. That’s life. Persecution is when you are suffering as a direct result of your words and lifestyle. Getting fired from your job because you are a Christian is persecution, getting beat up at school because you are a Christian is persecution, getting mocked and ridiculed in public because you are a Christian is persecution. And people tell me, “Well Kenny we live in America, that sort of thing doesn’t happen here you know.” And my reply to that is, “Oh, well I guess the Bible is wrong then when it says YOU WILL SUFFER persecution if you live godly in Christ Jesus.”
Let me tell you something. Persecution does indeed happen in the United States, but many don’t face it because they leave their religion at home and only pick it up on Sunday when they are around other Christians in church.
William Boothe, the founder of the Salvation Army once said, “If you happen to go to hell you will see Judas in the corner counting out his 30 pieces of silver, and you’ll hear him muttering to himself, ‘I sold Him for 30 pieces of silver.’ But the truth of the matter is that Judas didn’t sell Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, he sold himself. And if you speak with Judas he will say to you, ‘Here is what I sold him for. What price did you command for your soul?’”
Judas and the philosophers of the Areopagus laughed Jesus off.
But some of them didn’t. Some of them put Jesus off. You see people like to think that they are in control of their own lives. And when they hear the gospel message they might say to themselves, “I’m waiting.” “I’m waiting to clean up my life.” “I need to make some changes first.” There might even be someone here right now that needs to make a decision about Jesus Christ, but you’re waiting. There might be someone here that God is calling to missions, but you’re waiting. There might be someone here who needs to re-dedicate themselves to the Lord, but you’re waiting. There might be someone here that need to join the church but you’re waiting. I don’t know if you’re waiting, but you do. And that is one of the testaments to our sin nature, because if you think about it, who wouldn’t want to live their life in a manner that is pleasing to God? And who wouldn’t want to spend eternity with the Lord rather than in eternal punishment? And who wouldn’t want to know that their sins have been forgiven and that they have been reconciled to God? And I’m sure that we all “intend” to do it, but we don’t “intend” to do it today. Postponement is a gamble. A gamble with destiny, a gamble with our very lives, and a gamble with other people’s lives, lives that we could be influencing for the cause of Christ. But the Bible says, “Today is the day of salvation.”
But there are still some people who will put it off.
We can laugh it off, we can put it off, or we can accept it and believe.
Look at verse 34 (read).
Some joined Paul and believed. You see, Paul was determined to preach the gospel, to preach Christ, and Him crucified. The climax of the sermon was the resurrection. And the results of his sermon were the same results that we still see to day. Some mocked, some put it off, and some accepted it and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. The fate of those in the Areopagus is already sealed. For 2,000 years now they have been in eternity, they long ago discovered their eternal destiny and they can’t go back and change their decision. They can’t go back and listen more carefully to Paul expound on the gospel truths. They can’t go back and apologize for mocking the apostle and his message. They can’t put it off any longer.
But for those here today it’s different. Today the opportunity is yours. It is your turn to respond to the Lord and the message of the gospel. And that message is that you are a sinner, for we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but God in His mercy and grace has provided a way of salvation, and that way is His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. You see because we all have sinned, there was no way any of us could ever be right with God. Someone had to atone for our sins, but that someone had to be sinless Himself, in order for that atonement to be acceptable to God. But there were none righteous, no not one. And so in the fullness of time God sent His Son, to fulfill the law and to die in our place, so that the penalty of our sins might be paid. And Christ’s death on the cross paid that penalty in full. It appeased the wrath and justice of God, and allowed us to be justified in His sight. It was nothing we did, or nothing we will ever do that moved God to do this. It was solely and act of His grace by which He saved us. And we can only receive this grace by faith – by believing that the gospel is real, and true, and by trusting in it.
It is not too late for you today. You have the opportunity to say yes. Yes I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Yes I believe that He died on the cross for my sins. Yes I believe that He was resurrected from the dead.
Everyone here who needs to make a decision will do one of the three things I’ve talked about today. They might mock the message, and laugh it off. They might shake their heads and say, “No, not today. I’ve got plenty of time. I want to live my own life and not be restricted by Christian morals and Christian duty.” And so they might put it off. But then some might say, “Yes I believe.” Some might accept the truth, and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
So today I would say to you, if there is conviction in your heart; if you feel a strong desire to give your life to Jesus, or to get right with God, to repent from sin and leave your old life behind you, then I would say that there is a very good chance that what you are feeling is the Holy Spirit working on you, quickening you. All that needs to be done is to respond to that quickening in faith. To move out in faith and make the commitment that God is calling you to make, whether it’s to be saved, to repent from a certain sin, to follow the Lords leading into a certain type of ministry, or whatever it might be. I pray that if there are any here today who are being called by the Lord that they would recognize it, in Jesus Name. Amen.
